Bluetooth update

Question

Ok I searched the board and forund others have had a similar experience, however the threads did not follow through with the fix !! Hopefully one will be out there !!   Installed SP2, then upgraded the blue tooth software to fix the problems that SP2 created. All worked fine until strangely the Bluetooth icon when awol from the tray. So I could not stop or start the card, except with the Fn-F2 combo but that stops all transmissions. After many fruitless hours of searching for info decided to reinstall bluetooth drivers. Using the same download as before I reloaded now I have 2 bluetooth icons, one windows and one dell. THe dell one is showing the bluetooth card as disabled ( when the card is running, blue light on and comms in progress ). If I click on it to enable it says no bluetooth card present/ check it is switched on? THe blue tooth places software does not see it either. The XP bluetooth does see it and it seems to work but still I cannot enable/ disable card.   Any ideas, pointers. I tried restore but that won't work ( as ususal). I have unlaoded and reloaded the drivers several times. However after unloading the drivers windows sees the card stargiht away and loads its own set. I am assuming that this gives control over to XP and the dell version cannot run correctly. How can I stop windows seeing it first.   WHymewhynot

kelvin_milgate · Answer

Hi

I have the exact same problem. It seems that the Windows XP native driver is getting priority and the Dell driver is ignored. This means that my Bluetooth card fails to work.

Any help would be much appreciated as I use Bluetooth a lot.

Thanks

Kelvin

VBdotNet · Answer

After I installed the Dell drivers, I went into the Device Manager and uninstalled the M$ bluetooth. Under Bluetooth Devices the only entry I have is: Dell TrueMobile Bluetooth Module. I have no problems with it and my BT mouse - even with XP SP2.

kelvin_milgate · Answer

unfortunately i still have the same problem because when i restart the pc or try and activate the bluetooth module, XP detects a new PNP device and installs its own driver without giving the option to use the third-party one. there are instructions to disable this feature on the MS website but this doesn't work and the PNP detection still occurs.

any further suggestions would be much appreciated

VBdotNet · Answer

When you installed the Dell BT driver did you delete the folder that it extracted to? If yes, then re-extract and ( if necessary to make it happy) reinstall it - just so you can have access to the extracted files.   1) Uninstall all the Bluetooth drivers from the Device Manager 2) Control Panel -> Add Hardware, then DO NOT let XP use Windows Update or search for the drivers. Select the option to specify the location of the drivers. 3) Then select the folder that your Bluetooth driver was extracted to.   By overriding XP and forcing it to select the Dell driver, you should be OK.  Some folks are using the M$ driver for their BT mouse. I prefer using Dell's - just in case Dell ( Widcomm) adds functionality to their BT module that M$ does not implement. Message Edited by VBdotNet on 12-02-2004 04:55 PM

jpitsch11 · Answer

Ok, I've read through what I have found and still cannot get this to work. Inspiron XPS with Truemobile Bluetooth. Same problem as orginally described, dual bluetooth icons, MS bluetooth driver takes over, won't uninstall without reinstalling, etc etc. XP SP2 just automatically installs the driver and I can't find anything on how to disable that behavior. PLEASE help

Jeff

mstorr · Answer

Hi,

The problem is that the Microsoft bluetooth stack is taking precedence over the Dell stack. In order to get things working again, you need to force it to use the Dell stack by renaming the BTH.inf file in the Windows/inf directory . Heres the instructions :-

1. Make sure you enable 'Show Hidden Files and Folders' and un-tick 'Hide Known Extensions' under Advance Settings in Tools/Folder Options/View (found on any open window)

2. Under My Computer/Properties/Device Manager, uninstall any Bluetooth devices listed. Do no Re-Scan at this point

3. Download and extract the Dell R82522 Bluetooth driver to your local hard drive (or whichever is the correct Bluetooth drivers for your computer and card)

4. Rename BTH.inf to BTH.old found in the windows/inf directory (make sure you do Point 1 properly first so you can see it and rename it properly)

5. Go to My Computer/Properties/Device Manager and do a rescan. When it finds the Bluetooth device, it will ask you to check windows update etc for a driver. DO NOT LET IT DO THIS. Instead, say no and point it to the R82522 directory.

6. When its installed the driver, you should see only ONE Bluetooth device (the Dell Truemobile one) and NOTHING ELSE ie. no Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator.

Thats it. I carried out the above and now I can enable/disable the wireless/bluetooth with fn+F2, as well as enabling/disabling the bluetooth on its own by right-clicking the Bluetooth icon in the botom right.

kelvin_milgate · Answer

Hi

This seems to have solded my problem and the correct driver is now being used. However, I have two further questions:

1. The Bluetooth light on my Inspiron does not turn on even though Bluetooth is working;

2. There was a great bit of software on my PC before - something like a Bluetooth Explorer which was really useful. If appeared on the Start Menu and also by clicking on the icon in the system tray. Where can I get this? Also, I have noticed that the Bluetooth icon does not appear in the system tray. Is this a problem and could this be why the Bluetooth Explorers sortware does not show.

Any advice would be useful. And thanks for the previous post about the drivers - I have been contacting Dell for ages and they refuse to get back to me on the issue. The previous post has really helped me out!

Kelvin

xxhiyanxx · Answer

i did all the steps above..  renamed the file and tried to rescan.   windows automatically installed both the trumobile module AND the microsoft enumerator..  did not ask me anything about looking online for updates.   is there soemthign i'm missing?   i allowed show hidden files..   the file i renamed didnt' have an extention..  but it was the only bth file in the inf directory not including the bth.pnf, bthpan, bthprint etc. Message Edited by xxhiyanxx on 02-21-2005 03:37 PM

PiconMtz · Answer

About the bluetooth light, at bluetooth system tray icon, right click it and then click the advanced configuration at the General tab change desktop to portatil then apply changes it may be will install more drivers and after that it suposed to turn on the blue LED, it works for me, hope you too. Greetings.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

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